Life is the greatest show on earth because the world can be a circus. The events happening all around us daily can be entertaining, confusing, frightening, and dangerous. The ringmasters can lose control, and chaos can develop in the ring without warning. For this reason, you must be situationally aware, lest you become an unfortunate and active part of the show.
To maintain Situational Awareness, we must first understand what it means. Situational awareness means you perceive what is happening around you; you know what is happening around you and, to some degree, why it is happening. For example, if people are all running in one direction, being situationally aware means recognizing that something is occurring around you and that people are fleeing. You understand that whatever is happening is a threat and is occurring in the direction from which people are running, and to some degree, you know why people are fleeing because they are scared. You may not fully understand why they are afraid, but the simple information they are scared is enough. From this, you can form an effective response to the situation unfolding around you, which, of course, is to go a different way or move away in the opposite direction and find safety. As you become aware of more information through additional stimuli such as sight, sound, or physical sensation, your response(s) will effectively change accordingly. While this scenario breaks the concept down into the simplest form, Situational Awareness does not need to be overly complicated, but it does need to be consistent.
Situational awareness is no doubt a vital key to safety and survival. It is also an essential aspect of daily success in most things we do, from projects around the home to interacting with strangers, friends, and associates to performance at work. For example, when interacting with friends or associates, situational awareness allows us to perceive information through body language and visual cues that tell us if people are comfortable, uncomfortable, happy, sad, engaged, or disengaged with our interaction(s). This situational awareness allows us to change interactional directions, change how we are engaging, practice better communication techniques, or improve our immediate social awareness. The same is true for engaging in work performance. Being situationally aware of time constraints, performance barriers, and co-worker, subordinate, or supervisor behaviors can help us adjust our behaviors or practices to improve collaborations, communications, relationships, and performance. Thus, situational awareness is vital in emergencies but equally so in our everyday lives.
When humans respond to any stimulus, it involves a reactionary time, which is the time that elapses between when a stimulus occurs and when a reaction occurs. According to Jain et al., (2015), the average human reaction time is between 180-200 ms for visual stimuli and 140-160 ms for audible stimuli. While that may seem fast, do not let it fool you. Reaction times are how quickly you can initiate a reaction; response time is the reaction time plus the time it takes to complete the action. For example, if you are thrown a ball, your reaction time is how long it takes to initiate moving your hand up to catch the ball. We will call that 180 ms. Your response time is the time it takes to initiate the decision to catch the ball plus the time it takes to move your hand to the ball. Let us say it took 200 ms to move your hand. Thus, your response time is 0.38 seconds. If you are unaware the ball was thrown at you, you are already disadvantaged. Your reaction time will be delayed until you are aware, either by finally seeing it, hearing someone yell look out, or by the pain you feel when the ball hits you. Thus, being situationally aware allows you to react and respond promptly, enhancing safety and outcomes.
Reaction and response require decision-making, which is broken down into four stages. The best way to describe these stages is to use retired Colonel John Boyd’s OODA Loop decision-making process. The OODA loop concept breaks decision-making into four components: Observe, Orient, Decide, and Act. This is a continuous decision-making loop that constantly repeats as information from stimulus rapidly changes. Colonel Boyd used it to enhance his situational awareness to the point that he was considered unbeatable as a fighter pilot in combat. The first step is to Observe where we see what is happening. The second step is to Orient, where we process the information from what we see to understand what we are seeing. For example, as in the case provided above, we observe something moving towards us. Then, we orient ourselves to understand a ball is coming at us. Once we understand what is happening, we must take the third step: Decide on an action to take in response. The fourth and final step is acting on that decision, thus putting it into motion. This process repeats until we catch the ball, move out of the way, let it pass us by, etc. This concept applies to situations we encounter in life.
Situational awareness can be easily broken down by using retired USMC Lieutenant Colonel Jeff Cooper’s mental conditions color codes. Each state of mental condition is assigned a specific color code. There are five mental condition color codes, and each color corresponds with the current mental state a person might be in at any given time.
In the color White, you are entirely unaware of what is going on around you. You are completely unprepared to recognize any type of threat or risk and completely unprepared to respond. Unfortunately, this appears to be the most common level of awareness these days due to the number of people walking around completely focused on their phones while they video-record themselves, text, or use other social media. Code Level Yellow is where we should be most of the time. In the color Yellow, you are aware of your surroundings, and nothing is happening that causes alarm or concern. You are prepared if something happens, but you are also relaxed. In color Orange, you have been alerted to a possible threat and are prepared to act if or when necessary. In the color Red, you are actively involved in a crisis or emergency situation, and your focus is on dealing with that crisis or emergency situation. This is where we sometimes begin to lose effective situational awareness. Our focus is so intensely directed at this event that we may not see other possible dangers approaching or developing. This can lead to you moving to the color Black. In the color Black, you become so overwhelmed that you begin to panic, freeze, and even completely shut down. The color Black is the worst possible mental condition and should be avoided at all times.
Situational awareness is an intentional and conscious decision to be actively alert in the present and prepared for the immediate future. It must be continually practiced and is a perishable skill that, if ignored, can and will abandon you at the worst possible time. Therefore, I encourage you to practice the following tips to practice your situational awareness and put it to consistent use.
Here are 7 effective Tips for improving and practicing Situational Awareness in public places:
1. Be in the present and avoid being too focused on things like cell phones, computers, books, and other items when in public or unfamiliar environments. This creates tunnel vision, which diminishes your peripheral vision. To break tunnel vision, make an effort to look up and around often, and when walking, look around where you are, look ahead to greater distances, and scan. This will allow you to see more and provide additional time to recognize a threat, take an alternate route, or even stop and take other actions as appropriate.
2. Allow all of your senses to alert you to potential threats (sight, sound, smell, touch, taste): Each of these senses provides you with information that will help you be in the appropriate mental condition color of awareness. Use this information to navigate your OODA loop and formulate appropriate responses.
3. Trust your instincts: Do not simply ignore your “Hinky bells”; these are a natural part of our primal survival instincts. They have developed over tens of thousands of years from being both predator and prey. They help alert us to potential threat(s) and increase our chances of survival. They should, at the very least, cause us to slow down and act or proceed cautiously.
4. Always try to develop a baseline for what is normal in the current environment or surroundings you find yourself in. For example, should street lamps normally be on if you are walking down a particular street at night? If so, are they on now, in the present? If not, consider an alternate route. Do you usually see certain people or employees at a business but do not see them now? Does it appear to be different than usual? These are cues you need to increase your awareness and caution and act accordingly. If all is normal now, be aware if the situation changes from the expected baseline and have a plan to respond.
5. Increase your Awareness, reaction, and response by playing the “What if” game: If this happens (insert scenario)? I will do this. There is a tactical saying that goes, “The body will not go where the mind has never been.” So, mental rehearsals are a valuable tool for improving awareness, performance, reaction, and response.
6. Pay attention to things that pique your interest or cause your internal alarm bells to go off: For example, is someone acting strange or erratic? Is something out of place or out of the ordinary? If someone walks into a bank in the summer wearing an oversized heavy coat, is this strange or out of the ordinary? If so, listen to your senses and take appropriate action to protect yourself, such as leaving, contacting the authorities to report suspicious behaviors, looking for exit routes, etc. If nothing occurs, there is no harm, but you are prepared if something happens.
7. Think strategically: Be unexpected when going to or visiting the same places often (home, work, social activities), change your routes and routines often, and mix them up to avoid being predictable. When in public places, look for escape routes or exits you can easily access if something happens. Use well-lit and populated routes when walking on public streets. Look for safe places to go if help should be needed, such as police stations, hotels, restaurants, etc., where people can summon help from authorities. Know your abilities and your limitations when deciding on a response. If traveling in unfamiliar areas in a vehicle, keep your doors locked, avoid unnecessary dead ends, utilize mapping directions, and keep moving whenever possible. When traveling by foot, stay on well-traveled and lighted paths with populated pedestrian traffic whenever possible. Avoid dark or unpopulated routes, keep your eyes up, and always scan and listen for sounds of potential threats or risks.
Remember, life is the greatest show on earth, and that’s because the world can be a circus. The events that are happening all around us every day can be entertaining, confusing, frightening, and dangerous. The ringmasters can lose control, and chaos can develop in the ring without warning. Therefore, you must always be situationally aware, lest you become an unfortunate and active part of the show.
Reference:
Jain, A., Bansal, R., Kumar, A., & Singh, K. D. (2015). A comparative study of visual and auditory reaction times on the basis of gender and physical activity levels of medical first year students. International journal of applied & basic medical research. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4456887/
The world can be a circus; Are you situationally aware?
